2nd, 3rd, 4th-year Seats Uncontested in SGA Elections

This past week, Student Government Association (SGA) elections went live and students were allowed a 24-hour period to vote for their new class representatives. The voting period took place from Thursday, Sept. 21 at 5:00pm until Friday, Sept. 22 at 5:00 p.m. The results were posted Friday, Sept. 22 at 9:00pm. The positions up for election for the 2018-2019 academic year included the Class of 2022 President, Class of 2020 President, four Senators for the Class of 2022, four Senators for the Class of 2021, four Senators for the Class of 2020, and four for the Class of 2019.

All students were allowed only one vote for who they thought would best serve the Senator position and then the four students with the most votes were elected to that position. Students were also given one vote for each of the two available President positions. Some students, especially those among the first-year class, where seats were contested, chose to campaign for their elections with posters and flyers that they distributed across campus.

The newly elected First-Year Senators include Elizabeth Farran Brown, Jack Stone, Tijani Harris, and Maddy White. The first-year race was hotly contested, with 14 students running for senator and four running for class president. The Sophomore Senators include the newly-elected Lucemy Perez and incumbents Brendan Clark, Felicia McDevitt, and Myles Little. Sophomores were elected by default as there were four seats and none were contested.

The elected Senior Senators include newly-elected Katie DiRico, Michael Zarra, and Torrey Hill, as well as former class president Greg Norsigian. Senior senators were elected by default as well, as there were four seats, and none were contested. There is only one elected Junior Class Senator this year, incumbent Teddy Zoellner. Zoellner was reelected by default, as the seats were uncontested. The Junior Class President, Ondra Zindr, was also elected by default as that seat was uncontested.

The First-Year Class President, Jordan Lewis, spoke about his hopes going forward as he takes on the position stating, “my main goals for SGA are first and foremost being a support system to the Senior members of SGA [SGA President Kristina Miele and her cabinet], by assisting them in whatever plans they have to better propel Trinity College.”

Lewis spoke further on how he hopes to better serve the First-Year Class, adding that he has “several ideas in mind,” one of which is a “TrinTalk.” The talks would function in a manner similar to TED Talks, but for Trinity and taught by students. Lewis added that he “feels as though we can all learn from each other in monumental ways and having bi-weekly or monthly TrinTalks is the perfect to do so.” Trinity currently has a program under the same name, TrinTalks, organized by CONNPIRG, that seeks to foster respectful political dialogue on Trinity’s campus.

Lewis added that he “plans to represent the freshmen class as a fearless and open-minded leader. Lewis stressed that he is not a “‘yes’ man,” instead stating that he “challenges every idea brought to [him] and thinks critically about everything.”

The new class senators and presidents assumed their roles at the first regular meeting of the SGA on Sunday, September 23, in the Alumni Lounge. Current SGA President Kristina Miele stated, “I am really excited for this upcoming year. We plan to focus on student life and campus climate, and after our first meeting, every member was engaged and ready to take action on our initiatives.”